I am sad to announce - the final nail has been set

I am sad to announce that the final nail has been set in the fate of Persona Paper. This will be a long post describing the events, as everyone knows since the beginning we have tried to be as transparent as possible with everything.

What happened?

Display advertising has changed significantly over the years, as the mass run for obtaining just "views" has resulted in a realization that they really do not convert to increase in revenue. As such, most of the money has been focused into a smaller conglomerate of sites that achieve higher CPMs and have much higher traffic than small sites like this one. Ad blocking has become a hot topic which has also changed the landscape of display advertising on the web. Additionally, the ad companies have done it to themselves by bloating and slowing down a page to the point of almost becoming unusable. This was the first series of nails that was set in our coffin.

What happened? Be specific this time

We had a great start with Google, and everything was looking up. However, they canceled our account based on the assumption that we had fraudulent traffic numbers. After that, some of our original members recall the battles of finding another ad agency that would pay at least to the point that we had established as a middle ground for the price per coin. We finally found a home at MadAdsMedia and they were great in the beginning and had a sufficient CPM to maintain the site. No one was getting rich, but at least it was sustainable. I had the hope that we would be able to eventually become profitable if the site continued to grow. However, as of about two weeks ago we received the sad news that one of their big ad partners have cancelled demand for our available inventory. This means they basically said "We no longer want to pay for ads tos how in this site". As a result, our CPM was cut to 75%. There is no way the site can sustain itself on this amount, as this would cover the hosting expenses and that's it.

The final nail has been set - What happens now?

As of this morning I have ceased handing out any additional coins. We are not going to just disappear with no prior notice, and we will keep everything up and give people time to make backups of their content. I will see if I can assist in this process if anyone is interested by zipping up the posts into something they can navigate locally on their PC (if interested, please comment below). We are due 1 final payment from MadAdsMedia in February. After that, we will first recover the money we put into the site. The hosting costs and the money we put out to cover payouts in the beginning due to Google cancelling our account. This will leave some money left over, and we will start with the members with the highest amounts and payout accordingly (obviously covering any current pending payouts requested). We do apologize but this is the best we can offer. At least we are not just taking the money and running :)

So will I receive any money?

I cannot say for sure who will receive a payout and who will not. It depends on how much is left over after the final payment from MadAdsMedia and after we recover hosting costs. If you have a high amount pending right now, there is a good chance you will receive something. But I cannot say for sure since there could be a number of people above you that would take the remaining money. Keep in mind, that we will not consider the minimum $20 payout for this. We will still pay via paypal if the amount is under that. But again, we cannot say who will and who will not receive payment.

In Conclusion

I want to say thank you for everyone who has participated in this community. Many of you tried to make it work, and I loved the fact that many of you were so committed to our vision. Over the next week I will remove all advertising from the site (which means you should also notice a significant improvement in performance). I will transition the server over to a most cost-effective (ie: cheaper) server to reduce cost (which will come out of my own pocket). I'll leave the site up for the time being, just cease the advertising/payout portion of the site. I will post later about the timeframe for shutting down.

I would write on this site for free. Hope you get the chance to do it better the next time if you decide there will be a next time. Meantime I will hang out here to the very end and continue to write on HubPages and myLot. All those who visit myLot, in particular will realize there are a number of former writers who first moved to the site from the closing of Bubblews. I am not as familiar with mykite but I think HubPages and myLot are still going strong. I will continue writing here and staying connected to as many writers here and do all the backups of my articles as possible. It has been a funtastic experience for me here. Write on!

Sorry to hear that. I haven't been active here for quite a long time, but I did think it was a good site and well run. Thanks for always being upfront with everyone. I would appreciate being able to access a file containing my posts.

Very sad to hear this. Like lookatdesktop , I would write here for free, but you would not be earning money to pay hosting costs. I would appreciate a zip file with my content, thanks. And thanks to kasman who alerted me.

elitecodex I had a great time here. Thank you for your integrity and your efforts to keep the site running. If you start a fresh project in future I hope you will alert us via email if possible. My thanks and best wishes to everyone on this site. I hope we can stay in touch somehow and let each other know of other blogging sites.

I expected it. I have my own site and advertising revenues have decidedly decreased. Thanks for giving it a shot. I have nearly $19.00 and hope to collect. It would really hurt if it doesn't happen. I have been doing my best to get there, then to take my leave.

I am very saddened to hear about this, & I want to thank you personally for being so upfront with everything, and doing your best to keep this a viable, honest place to write and continue to build relationships.

Like megl , I too would appreciate a zip file of the things that I have written. I also appreciate that you are going to try to pay those of us that are close to our next payout. I was turning the corner on my 3rd one here within a couple of weeks.

I, too, hope that we can stay in contact here as a community. If there were any way that we could do that for a time there., we need to try to make some sense of how to stay together as a community. Even if it is somewhere else. Unfortunately, I do not have facebook. I hope that we have some time to make this transition, and it sounds as if that is the case.

I've seen this coming for a long time, which is why my activity here has slowed down. I'm sad to see the site go - it's been one of my favorites while it lasted. I'm glad, though, that I'm now out of limbo. I would appreciate the file. I will try to save my photo essays as complete web pages so I'll know where to put my photos back. I never had a chance to do that on Bubblews because they messed them up long before they closed the site down with no warning. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to meet each other here, since some folks were new to me. Best to you in whatever your futures hold.

Will, thank you for always being open and honest with us. You really tried to make it work in the face of great challenges, and I've appreciated my time here. I think it's wonderful that you will still try to pay out as much as you can, and I have my fingers crossed that I might a lucky one. It would be very handy if you could make me a zip file of my work, too. Thank you and Heather for everything!

First, yes, I would love a .zip file of my articles! Please!! With sugar on it!!!

As for the demise of PP, I'm sad, as are many others. The great thing about this site was we didn't have the mad influx of plagiarizers, mainly because of the rule that you had to write an introductory article. As a result, I feel the writing here was far superior to other sites. I'll miss the camaraderie more than anything else. I'm at MyLot (same name), and I'll probably go back to HubPages

I feel like I'm to blame..I was so close to cashing out at the B-place when they folded, then I got close here. Stay away from me!

That was one thing we wanted to do to separate us from everyone else. Be completely up front about what was going on. Treating our members like we would want to be treated if we were members ourselves. I thank you for you comments - I wish you the best going forward.

Thanks - I have been thinking if there is an alternative means of keeping the site going that would be worthwhile to everyone. I have considered some sort of messaging platform or a wordpress+social network hybrid. No plans yet but the domain will remain active for sometime while I ponder it. So everyone will have plenty of time to backup and connect in other places.

No problem, like I said it was one of the cornerstones when we started this site. I'll start working on something, just keep in mind it may take a little bit of time. The articles themselves aren't that hard, its the re-writing of the IMG tags that may be tricky as I need to download the images and store them in a local folder. Don't worry, we won't be going anywhere so your content is safe.

Regretfully you are right. That is why I titled this with the nails in the coffin metaphor. I think we all saw the first handful of nails go in, this just happened to be the last. Thank you very much for all the help and support you have volunteered to the site. I certainly wish you the best wherever you go next.

Well, I'll keep the site around for a little bit. The out of pocket costs for running a site shouldn't be too bad, and perhaps I can find a way to re-invent the site in a different format (like I mentioned above). Although the time it would take would certainly not make it something that would happen any time soon. Like I said above, I'll start working on it. Just make sure that you do not remove any articles you want to include in the zip file.

I agree and wish it could have been as well. Regretfully the display advertising world has gone through many changes over the years which makes sites like this difficult to keep. The web is very fluid so another model will emerge eventually.

If I do come up with another platform, I'll certainly let you know. I have many ideas, but its the time that is in short supply. But if I ever do get anything off the ground, I'll let everyone know. This site will be around for sometime, just not paying out anything. So be sure to check in maybe once a month and who knows what you'll see :)

I know, its annoying. In a way I can't blame them though. After a new domain goes from just a few hundred hits to tens of thousands in just a few days does seem suspicious. We just had good timing with Heather posting on Facebook when Bubblews was having issues. Spread like wild fire so they thought something was up. Completely legitimate but they didn't believe us. Oh well, perhaps next time I can present a better case so they can see what is really happening.

Don't worry, your content will be safe here until you take it off. Like I said before, we aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

No problem, I know the pains of a site just disappearing without the opportunity of obtaining a copy of your work. I wanted to make sure everyone had an opportunity to make a copy just in case they wanted it.

Your pretty high up there, and while I can't say for sure you seem to have a pretty good chance of getting a final payout. I wont process the payments until the final payment from MadAds comes in, and that could be another two weeks. Just keep checking in on the status, I'll let everyone know the progression as we move forward.

Yes, you will have plenty of time to make the transition. The webpage will remain up for sometime going forward, so it will be just as before (minus the ability to get more coins and payouts). I'll work on the archive option, but it will take some time to complete. Just be sure to not remove your work or it won't be included in the archive (since it will have been deleted).

The payouts will be dependent on how much is left over after the final payouts. Those who are close have the best chance, just not sure how close you have to be at the moment.

I think many of the members that have been here since the beginning have all seen the same thing... even we saw it. it seems it was just an uphill battle since after the Google fiasco. I had a small sliver of hope that things could turn around... and they did. Just in the wrong direction.

Haha no problem, you can keep the sugar though... trying to cut carbs :)

Yeah we think that was one of the best things we did. It did keep membership lower than it otherwise would have been, but kept the cruft low and the quality higher. I don't have any regrets of making that policy.

Don't worry, I don't think your infected
Thanks again and best of luck!

I am sad to see this site is unable to pay and stay running any longer. I never made it to over $3 but I didn't write very often. I enjoyed coming here and writing articles when I had time and something to write about. I will be sad to see it go as I am sure many others will be as well. Its to bad all these sites that I have grown to love over the years just cannot continue to earn enough revenue to stay open.

I already have. It took lots of coffee to do this. In my case just a tiny bit more than 600 articles since I joined 2 years ago. I would like to pay it forward my bank to another member, Vincent Summers, if possible. You have my permission to do this if there is a way. I don't need the money in any case. You can keep it. It's no problem. Also I have seen some of the user avatars when I downloaded my articles in Microsoft Word. Some of them are quite large in size. I suppose many jaypegs and gifs that were uploaded by other writers at this site were extremely large and as such they must have taken up much storage space at the server. I found that I was able to maintain a personal home page for just about 11 dollars a month but noticed that the image files were so large that they actually took up most of the space at the server where my online files for that site are stored. They do charge more based on the overall storage so I guess smaller pics are favorable or using image html tags that allow remote images to be viewed but I don't know exactly how this is done. I am a basic blogger not an IT specialist.

elitecodex , would it be possible to just create another site with a different name and re-apply for AdSense? You could control the influx of new members and let us know the best way to proceed with posting and interaction so as not to anger the Great Google.

Happy for you to keep my dollars elitecodex . Would like my content though, please, because I'm not sure I managed to save it all, especially from the early days. I have seen this coming a while now, and I'd rather part on good terms from here. Sorry it has come to this, but that's the stupidity of clickbait idiot advertising kakk these days. Good luck, God bless, and thank you.

I have a post on this. If it is not expensive may be you could retain the site as it is now well established where you do not have to pay but members could continue to socialise there. When myLot had done that they used allow advertising by members adding links and stuff.

I hate goODBYES! God bless and hope to see each other again.... and yeah I hope to get a zipped file of all my post in here. I guess this is goodye... I will miss Personapaper maeLou and elitecodex ! It makes me want to cry now. I guess... hopes got crashed again but I know we will all have a great success in different areas and blessings from God. To Christ be the glory!

My pages stay live here for as long as y'all let them stay?
- Thank you nice person. You're humble and lovable. :) elitecodex

I will be republishing elsewhere and crediting this site with being the first place where the content appeared. Used the Wayback Machine to save snapshots of all my pages. Although with my luck that site will disappear too and all my work will poof! :) https://archive.org/web/

No problem, that is something I'll definitely get together for everyone. For right now, you can certainly use this site as a means of staying connected. No plans for it to go away permanently yet. But I will keep everyone posted to the progress no matter what direction we take.

Oh, no! I just came back, a lot of time willing to stop by and I found this! So sad news! But I have to say... you did a great job! And I really appreciate the way you communicate everything and how clear everything always was and still is. Best!

If you are using a modern version of Windows, the way I am envisioning it, is that it would create a folder and local HTML files that contains the content of your post (with images). Each post would be in its own folder, but it shouldn't be too hard to come up with some sort of index HTML file that you could open and click on links to navigate to them automatically.

Again this is something I'll know more when I actually sit down and start developing it. I'll post details as it gets closer.

Yeah, between the members and myself we will certainly help you out. I'll post detailed instructions when the zip file becomes available so that may be all you need. If not, BarbRad has indicated she has a post with some instructions.

BarbRad - you can go ahead and post the link if you wish to make it easier.

Yeah the revenue sharing model regretfully has taken a major shift when these types of sites started. It's a great idea, but the people who put the money into advertising do not feel it is worth their time anymore.

I am keeping the site open for the time being, but the revenue sharing aspect of the site just keeps digging itself into a deeper hole. Even if I froze the coin counts now and continued with the advertising to bring in revenue to pay out for the coins paid, it would take years. We were treading water before, but with the changes mentioned above they basically tied a weight to our ankles and are pulling us down at a rapid pace.

Not to mention the impressions would go down significantly since no more coins would be handed out. I think it's best to rip the bandaid off as fast as possible instead of letting the pain continue.

And since I just used three metaphors in a single comment, I've hit my limit so I need to stop talking

Thanks for the support WordChazer - don't worry, the content you put on the site is still yours to keep. I'll make a utility that will offer all of your content in an easy to use zip file to download (may take a little time though). Your content isn't going anywhere though.

I agree, I think everyone has seen it coming... especially those who were here in the beginning and knew the heartache of the whole Google fiasco. Best of luck to you!

Your welcome - like I said I wanted to treat our members like I wanted to be treated at other sites. So I am trying to do the best I can in a bad situation. I am very grateful for the comments of support from everyone... makes me feel like I did something right in my decision to put my users first :)

Thanks for the support - we'll see what our options are. Right now, we are just disabling the revenue sharing aspect. What comes next could go in many different directions. I'll put some thought into it, so keep an eye on the front page for future updates.

Thank you - I wanted to make sure that we put our users first and being upfront and open with our communication seemed to be the best avenue. Many of our members seem to appreciate that so I think it was the right call. Best of luck to you!

That was one of the first things we considered in the beginning. The only problem is that moving domains would not be sufficient to appear to be a completely different entity. The first payout request would raise a number of red flags since many other elements would be the same as the "current" banned account. Physical address, bank accounts, IP addresses are all things they can use to cross reference people (site owners) that have been previously banned. The only legitimate work around is to establish a business AdSense account.

But then we are placing our hopes on something so fragile that I wouldn't feel confident we would not end up in the same exact boat we are in now.

Thanks for the assurance. I had already cashed out last January 19.
Thanks too for being so vocal about this and for the great opportunity of being a part of this wonderful community.
May you be blessed always.

Our costs are just a little higher than that :) but I just checked and we are hosting about 12Gb of stuff (mainly images/avatars). The real cost comes in the bandwidth to serve those images. A shared hosting could work, but we would have to re-engineer the site and scaling would be a nightmare compared to what we have now. The cost isn't astronomical right now, which is why I don't mind covering it for the foreseeable future. But to keep the site open for the long term we would have to come up with something that at least breaks even (or maybe a little more).

Whatever the future holds for PersonaPaper it won't look like it does now, although it'll be related.

That is something I had considered, sort of re-focus the site on a social network platform (like we need another one of those right?) or a messaging platform of some kind.

But I think there is some value in being able to have a simple, no-fuss social network where you have a group of people and no worry about ads or being shown "sponsored posts"... just what your friends are posting. Not sure how the economics would work yet, but its something to consider.

Yep right now, its free hosting in a way :) I'll keep everyone posted on the changes going forward. Be sure to check in every once in awhile. I won't send an email until a final decision / release is made. I don't want to start spamming people either.

That is perfectly fine. We are not displaying any advertising anymore, so their rules no longer apply which means we can be a little more lax in what is posted here (to some degree). You can post them on facebook and keep them here if you like, it is completely up to you.

I am contemplating a shift in the site, so it will not go away permanently for sometime. But keep checking in so you know what's going on :)

Without intending that you should emulate myLot, what they did when they stopped paying was that they allowed Advertising by users and referral links to be posted there. They got a lot of of their own Ads and thus they earned too.

As someone who took a long hiatus from here and only recently returned, and as someone who never generated enough content to make any money, I'd like to say this:
Firstly, you have done a wonderful thing here, both with the site and your handling of it. Integrity on the internet is not something most people are used to. Should you decide to go forward in a different form I think you will find a number of folks sticking with you. I know I would do so.

Secondly, I have a whopping $1.31 in my bank! Please just toss it into the bin to be distributed with the rest to those writers who have worked so diligently here. I've enjoyed this ride - thank you!

Thank you for your kind words. I am glad that everyone seems to be in agreement that we handled things as best as we could. We are not going anywhere for the time being, so check in every once in a while and maybe we will turn this ship in a different direction.

We do not have any plans to turn off the site on a particular day. For the foreseeable future, it will remain open in its current form minus the ad revenue sharing. At this moment we have only taken the step of disabling the ad revenue sharing portion of the site. Other steps will follow, and we will post about them when a decision is made one way or another. But until then, nothing else changes.

Many others are posting about the sites they tend to spend the most time. For the time being, you can certainly remain in contact here. We are sticking around, minus the ad revenue sharing for the time being. Like I said above, we'll post about any futures steps that we take.

Thanks LoudMan - that sounds like it would certainly be a nice future. We'll see if it ever happens
I have gone around in my head and nothing can sustain even the measly amount that we pay out now. While I would love for everyone to get paid, it isn't really a sufficient amount to warrant the upkeep for the platform as a whole. I think we need to reinvent ourselves in a new light, without the focus on money. While money makes the world go around, we saw the negative impact it had on our site to earn not a whole lot. We can not run it for free forever, so we do need to find a way to earn enough to cover time and expenses.

I'm sorry to hear this, but glad you are being so open with everyone. I have already collected what I wanted and was just going to delete ,my profile, but couldn't figure out how, so I will just allow it to go down when the site goes down.

This is exactly what I have been saying to people for over the past year and a half or more. I am sorry to see you leave the scene and wish you will in your future endeavors. Times change and so must we all.

I just heard the news on MyKites. I am not regular writer in here so I am kind of late. I was busy with other things, my blog Crusox and some social sites like the Gaption. By the number of the writers in here I was hoping this will be a solid venue, but I guess it is not, sorry to hear this. It is never a good thing when a site looses the earning potential. Hope you will fix it somehow or at least allow your regular writers to continue contributing, I see many like this place for more reasons but only income.

@elitecodex I've been trying to remove some evergreen content that I want to republish elsewhere. When I first attempt to delete, the site tells me the process has been successful. But Google says it can't de-index because the content is still live on the site. Sure enough, I checked the URLs and the posts are still there
Help? Please?